1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sheet tray device and also an image processing apparatus having the sheet tray device. More particularly, the invention is concerned with such a sheet tray device arranged to hold a media sheet before and after the media sheet is supplied to an image processor portion of an image processing apparatus, and also such an image processing apparatus having the sheet tray device arranged to hold the media sheet before and after the media sheet is supplied to the image processor portion.
2. Discussion of Related Art
In a conventional image processing apparatus such as printer and facsimile machines, a sheet input tray for accommodating media sheets that is to be supplied to an image processor portion and a sheet output tray for receiving the media sheets that have been discharged from the image processor portion are disposed separately from each other. JP-H06-312551A discloses a recording apparatus as a kind of the image processing apparatus in which the media sheet is moved toward and away from a recorder portion as the image processor portion by the same roller. JP-H07-2345U discloses an image reading apparatus as a kind of the image processing apparatus in which a sheet input tray and a sheet output tray are integrated with each other.
In JP-H06-312551A, the recording apparatus can be made compact in size by the arrangement in which the movement of the media sheet toward and away from the recorder portion is made by the same roller. In JP-H07-2345U, the image reading apparatus can be made compact in size by the integration of the sheet input and output trays with each other. However, where a multiplicity of media sheets that are to be moved toward the image processor portion are superposed on each other in each of these conventional image processing apparatuses, a media sheet having been moved away from the image processor portion can be brought into contact with the media sheets to be moved toward the image processor potion, thereby possibly impeding movement of the media sheets toward the processor portion and accordingly deteriorating an image processing performance exhibited by the image processing apparatus.